Comfort During The Storm
by ElectricOutcast
Summary: Some people look at his song as a tale of heartbreak and murder, but two people will look at this song as a shield against the demons of their past. Rated T for subject matter. Title is not the name of the songfic.


**A/N: This is just a posting to show some of my regular readers that I'm still alive and trying my best to finish my current projects. This one was part of side project I've been toying with on and off while completing my story The Law Offices of Fey and Wright (which I'm still working on). I've listed J.D. Robb as one of my influences for that fanfic but I also wanted to explore an idea where Eve and Roarke are sleeping during one of their vacations and during that vacation they decided to listen to music of the 90's and early 2000's. This dream is a result of their music listening and how it can bring comfort. Hope you guys like it.**

 **Disclaimer: The characters behind this story are not owned by me but credited to J.D. Robb and the song is co-written by Garth Brooks and Pat Alger. I claim no ownership of either property.**

She knew it to be a dream when she fell into a deep sleep, what she didn't expect to be in was the alleyway where she was found in Dallas, TX after killing Richard Troy. A traumatic event that she tried to get over, but after meeting Stella and McQueen in late summer she realized that it was a part of her whether she liked it or not, she thought to herself even in that dream. Even then this dream felt a little off even for her. She was still in the rag that was considered a nightgown, she was dirty from walking in Dallas the day she killed that monster. More importantly, she began to smell the rain, a different kind of rain compared to the wedding night in Paris she and Roarke had.

She then began to see lightning striking above the Dallas skyline, the thunder it left rumbling was a distinct pattern of specific sounds, so much so that she was certain that she heard this type of thunder before. Compared to her being abused as a child, the idea of thunder and lightning scaring her seemed very foreign. The lightning scared her again though, when it flashed bright enough to see the shadow of a man, instinct automatically told her it was Richard Troy, coming back from the dead and finding her. But when lighting flashed again, she saw that shadow again and saw the figure wearing a cowboy hat. He never wore a cowboy hat, she realized, she never remembered him wearing a hat of any kind. A cowboy hat of all things, but this figure slowly walking to her did.

She shouldn't have recognized him, he should've been older if not dead by the time she was born. But here he was in his thirties, wearing all black from cowboy hat, to denim shirt, jeans and boots. And she didn't feel afraid of him, she didn't feel scared the way she felt when an adult approached her back then, he didn't smile at her the way those cops did when they found her in the real alleyway. Instead he looked at her with those intense eyes that glowed with the lightning as rain began to pour down. Another thing she noticed with the rain in this dream, it felt warm, not hot compared to her showers at home, the rain felt like a warm blanket, a baby blanket to be exact. Being so taken by the rain, she didn't notice the man finding an old leather sofa that appeared out of nowhere, she even heard the guitar that played in the background, but he didn't carry a guitar, instead his hand reached out in an invite for the child to sit on his lap while he sat on that sofa. Accepting this mans kindness and as thanks for not scaring her, she took his hand and sat on his lap. The guitar continued playing as the man began to sing to her ever so gently.

 _ **Three thirty in the morning**_

 _ **Not a soul insight**_

 _ **The city's lookin' like a ghost town**_

 _ **On a moonless summer night**_

 _ **Raindrops on the windshield**_

 _ **There's a storm moving in**_

 _ **He's headin' back from somewhere**_

 _ **That he never should have been**_

 _ **And the thunder rolls**_

 _ **And the thunder rolls**_

While the man sang to her, she began to realize what the song was, her adult self heard it so why was her eight year old self hearing it. This was a song about domestic abuse and murder, no child should ever hear this song, let alone watch a rated-R movie which this song was the equivalent to. But sitting in this man's lap, singing to her and holding her comfortably in his arms, like how a real father should hold a little girl, she just took in the security and warmth being offered to her even in the rain.

 _ **Every light is burnin'**_

 _ **In a house across town**_

 _ **She's pacin' by the telephone**_

 _ **In her faded flannel gown**_

 _ **Askin' for a miracle**_

 _ **Hopin' she's not right**_

 _ **Prayin' it's the weather**_

 _ **That's kept him out all night**_

 _ **And the thunder rolls**_

 _ **And the thunder rolls**_

The lightning picked up in frequency as the song picked up the speed when she heard him sing the chorus of the song, his voice was raised a bit when he sang it, but not once did he break that gentle hold on her and she didn't feel scared of him. Like a real father again, the fierceness she saw in his eyes were those of ones wanting to protect a little girl. He was sensing the monsters in her dream and was doing his job to ward them away, particularly the ones that were her "parents", Max Ricker and Issac McQueen. Those people kept haunting her for years and years, yet here she was in the arms of a man around her real age being kept safe from those same monsters and deciding not to think on those demons anymore she decided to wrap her arms around him like a shield as he continued singing to her.

 _ **The thunder rolls**_

 _ **And the lightnin' strikes**_

 _ **Another love grows cold**_

 _ **On a sleepless night**_

 _ **As the storm blows on**_

 _ **Out of control**_

 _ **Deep in her heart**_

 _ **The thunder rolls**_

Across another street from her alley, he rose up from laying down on the concrete. The same position he was in when he was nearly beaten to death by his father before being discovered by Summerset. But this time he was able to get up by himself without any help, and immediately he felt something odd when he did get up. Why was he in an alleyway in Dallas? He should've been in Dublin where he was found, he even grew more curious when rain began to fall down from the night sky and how warm it felt. Then when he heard a guitar being played out of nowhere, instinct told him to follow the direction of the sound. After doing some running, he caught a glimpse of a man in a black cowboy hat, walking into an alley that he instantly recognized. Again instinct told him that it was Richard Troy's ghost coming back to haunt his girl, or worse, maybe his father coming over to her to continue the torture. But he'd be damned if this stranger were to walk down the aisle of his girl and torture her.

 _ **She's waitin' by the window**_

 _ **When he pulls into the drive**_

 _ **She rushes out to hold him**_

 _ **Thankful he's alive**_

 _ **But on the wind and rain**_

 _ **A strange new perfume blows**_

 _ **And the lightnin' flashes in her eyes**_

 _ **And he knows that she knows**_

 _ **And the thunder rolls**_

 _ **And the thunder rolls**_

When he eventually caught up to that cowboy, he would've been ready to attack the first chance that man would attack his girl. Instead he caught her being in the comfort of his arms, holding her like a real father would when a child had nightmares. He saw that she didn't feel scared of this man, instead she felt at peace. Even now, him watching that cowboy sing to his girl, the singer did give off an intense presence, but even the boy felt that the intensity wasn't directed at him per se. He immediately began to realize that this cowboy was warding off the evil spirits of his father, her parents and Max Ricker in this dream and making his girl feel at peace. Another thing he noticed was how different she looked from the woman she would become, she still looked beautiful but a lot more fragile than she would be now. Seeing that this cowboy was no longer a threat to his girl, he began to walk in the direction of the sofa that they sat at, envying how the cowboy's singing voice gave his girl comfort even as he sang a song about murder.

 _ **The thunder rolls**_

 _ **And the lightnin' strikes**_

 _ **Another love grows cold**_

 _ **On a sleepless night**_

 _ **As the storm blows on**_

 _ **Out of control**_

 _ **Deep in her heart**_

 _ **The thunder rolls**_

Suddenly she felt that familiar tenseness in the back of her neck, the same she feels in her adult form when sensing him. Turning around slowly and cautiously, she saw him walking slowly in the alleyway of Dallas. Other than his picture as a baby with his mother, she never saw childhood pictures of him and neither did he of her. But there he stood in a white t-shirt, blue gym shorts, white tennis shoes. His hair was shorter than what it is now, but it still stopped at neck level. His face looked beautiful at twelve years old, eyes as blue as those shorts, hair as black as the night. She knew him then and felt the love for him sweep over her like a wave.

 _ **She runs back down the hallway**_

 _ **And through the bedroom door**_

 _ **She reaches for the pistol**_

 _ **Kept in the dresser drawer**_

 _ **Tells the lady in the mirror**_

 _ **He won't do this again**_

 _ **Cause tonight will be the last time**_

 _ **She'll wonder where he's been**_

Easing herself off the cowboy's lap, Eve ran to the younger version of Roarke and clung to him tightly like a lifeline. She didn't hide the fact that she was weeping over him in the rain, but he held her just as tightly because she was also his lifeline. They were afraid to let go of each other in this moment of innocent passion. Passion that should've been reserved for adults washed through Eve and Roarke at 8 and 12 years old just like it still did at 32 and 36 years old respectively. Even as the song and the dream began to end, the connection carried with them into the real world.

 _ **The thunder rolls**_

 _ **And the lightnin' strikes**_

 _ **Another love grows cold**_

 _ **On a sleepless night**_

 _ **As the storm blows on**_

 _ **Out of control**_

 _ **Deep in her heart**_

"I saw you Roarke," Eve wept gently as she repeated that statement like a prayer to a God. "I saw

you."

"I know baby...I know." Roarke stroked her naked back as she wept happy tears onto his shoulder,

their connection really did run that deep.

 _ **The thunder rolls**_


End file.
